How to connect and set up the Internet on a tablet

Tablets are very con­ve­nient when work­ing on the Inter­net — much more com­fort­able than smart­phones. The large screen diag­o­nal helps to view “wide” sites, sim­pli­fies web surf­ing and allows you to work in appli­ca­tions in a “pseu­do-two-win­dow” mode.

How­ev­er, con­nect­ing and set­ting up the Inter­net on a tablet can be quite com­pli­cat­ed — from choos­ing a tar­iff to direct­ly set­ting up a con­nec­tion. And if the device is not equipped with a slot for a SIM card, then it com­plete­ly turns into a “task with an aster­isk”.

The algo­rithm of actions when con­nect­ing and set­ting up the Inter­net on a tablet is approx­i­mate­ly the fol­low­ing:

1. Choose the appro­pri­ate tar­iff for the tablet;

2. Set up a con­nec­tion to the World Wide Web.

3. If the tablet is not equipped with a SIM card slot, then you should look at alter­na­tive options:

4. Buy­ing a portable Wi-Fi router;

5. Work with an exter­nal USB modem;

6. Set up noti­fi­ca­tions about an open Wi-Fi net­work;

7. Dis­tri­b­u­tion of the Inter­net from a smart­phone.

How to choose a tariff for a tablet

A tablet is a device for access­ing the Inter­net. There­fore, the tar­iff for it should be appro­pri­ate.

Suit­able rate:

1. Does not include voice calls (“min­utes”). You are unlike­ly to call from a 10-inch “shov­el”, right? In addi­tion, many lap­tops, even if they have a SIM card slot, do not sup­port voice calls. Only traf­fic;

2. Includes at least 4 GB of traf­fic. This amount in 2019 is enough for not very active web surf­ing, check­ing mail and social net­works. But if you want to watch movies or lis­ten to music online, then you should pur­chase a tar­iff with 10 GB or more of traf­fic.

3. Almost all mobile oper­a­tors have spe­cial tar­iffs for portable com­put­ers. The best con­di­tions are offered by Yota (“Iota”), but its cov­er­age area is not very good. If you plan to often trav­el out of town with a tablet, then it is bet­ter to look at offers from some oth­er mobile oper­a­tor.

4. In no case do not choose offers with per-megabyte billing. It would seem that pay­ing for mobile traf­fic only if you use it is a good solu­tion. But at the same time, the cost of one megabyte can be very high, and as a result, you will have to pay about 10 dol­lars for any giga­byte of data. And a giga­byte of data is one high-def­i­n­i­tion movie watched.

5. To pur­chase a SIM card, you will def­i­nite­ly need a valid pass­port. It is worth con­sid­er­ing that some oper­a­tors require that the sub­scriber be at least 18 years old. There­fore, to buy a SIM card for a child, use your pass­port.

6. After pur­chas­ing a SIM card, install it in the tablet by pulling out the cor­re­spond­ing tray and turn on mobile data trans­fer.

How to set up internet on a tablet

In the vast major­i­ty of cas­es, Inter­net access does not require pri­or con­fig­u­ra­tion. How­ev­er, some oper­a­tors (espe­cial­ly vir­tu­al ones, such as Yota) require you to set up a con­nec­tion your­self.

You will need:

1. Data for con­nect­ing to the mobile Inter­net (access set­tings). They can be obtained direct­ly from the oper­a­tor’s office or found on his web­site.

Instruc­tion:

It should be not­ed right away that this instruc­tion is writ­ten for the mobile oper­at­ing sys­tem Android 8.0 Oreo and new­er. If your device is run­ning iOS or Win­dows, then the names of the items and their loca­tion may dif­fer, but the gen­er­al algo­rithm of actions is sim­i­lar.

1. Open “Set­tings”;

2. Select the “Net­work and Inter­net” item, in it — “Mobile net­work”;

3. Click “More set­tings” or the three-dot menu in the upper right cor­ner;

4. Open “Access Points (APN)” or an item with a sim­i­lar name;

5. Press the menu but­ton (three dots in the upper right cor­ner) and select “New hotspot”;

6. Fill in the items indi­cat­ed in the con­nec­tion data. Those that are not indi­cat­ed do not need to be touched. So, for exam­ple, if in the set­tings it is indi­cat­ed to fill in the proxy, fill it in. If not, do not touch this item;

7. Make sure every­thing is set up cor­rect­ly and click “Save” (this but­ton may be hid­den in the menu);

8. You will return to the page with a list of access points. Select the one you just cre­at­ed;

9. Press “Back” and turn on mobile Inter­net.

10. You can turn on mobile Inter­net, for exam­ple, from the quick set­tings pan­el. Pull the “cur­tain” of noti­fi­ca­tions down, then again — and now it will open. Click on “Mobile Inter­net” or “Data Trans­fer”.

But, it is worth not­ing that this instruc­tion should be resort­ed to in extreme cas­es. Usu­al­ly, in order to con­nect and set up the Inter­net on a tablet, you just need to buy a SIM card, insert it into the device and acti­vate data trans­fer.

How to connect and set up the Internet on a tablet if it is not equipped with a SIM card slot

If the tablet does not have a SIM card slot, then you can see alter­na­tive options for con­nect­ing it to the Inter­net:

1. Buy a portable Wi-Fi router;

2. Buy and set up a USB modem;

3. Con­nect to all open Wi-Fi net­works near­by;

4. “Dis­trib­ute” the Inter­net from a smart­phone.

Let’s con­sid­er them all.

Buying a portable Wi-Fi router

A few years ago, the author of this mate­r­i­al walked with an Acer Ico­nia Tab A500 tablet. The device did not have a SIM card slot, and access to the World Wide Web was required. The solu­tion was to buy a portable Wi-Fi router.

Such devices can be pur­chased direct­ly from the oper­a­tor (in 2019 they are avail­able from MTS, Mega­fon and Yota providers) or in an elec­tron­ics store (we rec­om­mend buy­ing a Huawei mod­el).

You will need:

1. Portable Wi-Fi router;

2. SIM card with modem tar­iff.

It is very impor­tant that the tar­iff on the SIM card is specif­i­cal­ly for the modem. Portable Wi-Fi routers are defined by the provider as USB modems, so installing a SIM card with a “smart­phone” or “tablet” tar­iff plan can be “defined” as dis­tri­b­u­tion (teth­er­ing) and cost a pret­ty pen­ny.

For exam­ple, it is def­i­nite­ly not worth using Yota’s “tele­phone” tar­iffs or “Unlim­it­ed” from MTS.

Instruc­tion:

1. Install the SIM card in the Wi-Fi router if it is not already there. Turn it on, using the instruc­tions, and wait for the con­nec­tion to the net­work;

2. Find the net­work name and pass­word on the router itself. They are usu­al­ly found on a stick­er on the back of the device;

3. Open the Wi-Fi set­tings on your tablet and con­nect to the net­work by enter­ing the pass­word.

4. The Wi-Fi router is pow­ered by a built-in bat­tery. Make sure it is always charged.

Advan­tages of the method:

The Inter­net is every­where and always;

1. Rel­a­tive­ly inex­pen­sive rates. For exam­ple, some providers offer com­plete­ly unlim­it­ed plans for such devices.

The dis­ad­van­tages of the method:

1. Equip­ment price. A portable Wi-Fi router costs from 30–40$;

2. The router can be dis­charged at the most inop­por­tune moment.

Buying a USB modem

Before buy­ing a USB modem, you should make sure that your tablet sup­ports it. And just hav­ing a USB port is not enough. In prin­ci­ple, it is not need­ed if there is a so-called OTG cable.

Infor­ma­tion about whether your tablet sup­ports such a con­nec­tion can be obtained on the man­u­fac­tur­er’s web­site or in user com­mu­ni­ties like w3bsit3-dns.com.

You will need:

USB modem;

1. SIM card with modem tar­iff;

2. If nec­es­sary, an OTG cable.

Sim­i­lar to the pre­vi­ous method, the tar­iff on the SIM card must be for the modem. “Tele­phone” will not work.

OTG cable is a spe­cial cable that is equipped with micro USB con­nec­tors and full-size USB Type‑A. It is designed to con­nect devices from USB to the tablet — flash dri­ves, modems, etc.

Instruc­tion:

1. Insert the SIM card into the USB modem, if not already done;

2. Con­nect the modem to the tablet — direct­ly or via an OTG cable.

3. The con­nec­tion should be made auto­mat­i­cal­ly, with­out addi­tion­al set­tings or set­tings of any para­me­ters. If this does not hap­pen, most like­ly your mobile device does not sup­port USB modems.

Advan­tages of the method:

1. Low price. Often, modem plans offer a low­er price for traf­fic than “mobile” or “tablet” ones;

2. Work in any con­di­tions and any sit­u­a­tion. Of course, in the net­work cov­er­age area.

The dis­ad­van­tages of the method:

1. The modem sticks out of the tablet. You can dam­age one device or both;

2. Pur­chase of a modem is required.

It is worth not­ing that all tablet com­put­ers (includ­ing hybrid ones) under Win­dows sup­port USB modems. How­ev­er, the instal­la­tion of a spe­cial pro­gram is required.

Connecting to open Wi-Fi networks

The Android oper­at­ing sys­tem sup­ports auto­mat­ic search for open Wi-Fi net­works. This helps to con­nect to the Inter­net in places with free Inter­net access — for exam­ple, in cafes, restau­rants and oth­er pub­lic places.

Instruc­tion:

1. Open “Set­tings”;

2. Go to the sec­tion “Wire­less net­works”, “Net­work and Inter­net” or just “Wi-Fi” depend­ing on the firmware;

3. Turn on Wi-Fi;

4. Click “Wi-Fi Set­tings” or menu (three dots in the upper right cor­ner);

5. Acti­vate the “Noti­fi­ca­tions about open net­works” item.

6. Now, when there is an open net­work in the cov­er­age area (with­out a pass­word), the tablet will send a noti­fi­ca­tion about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of con­nect­ing.

It is worth not­ing that many open net­works require autho­riza­tion after con­nec­tion. This is due to both Euro­pean leg­is­la­tion and the desire of own­ers to save traf­fic from exces­sive spend­ing.

Advan­tages of the method:

1. The device auto­mat­i­cal­ly alerts you when there is pub­lic Wi-Fi near­by.

The dis­ad­van­tages of the method:

1. Increased bat­tery con­sump­tion due to the fact that Wi-Fi is always on;

2. Some­times free net­works are “pseu­do-open”, that is, autho­riza­tion is required after con­nec­tion.

Sharing internet from phone

This method will help in sit­u­a­tions where you urgent­ly need to con­nect to the Inter­net for a short time. It is worth con­sid­er­ing that in this case traf­fic from the smart­phone is con­sumed. That is, if there is no “giga­byte” on the phone or not enough, it is also unlike­ly to appear on the tablet.

Also, some providers block the dis­tri­b­u­tion. This is done, for exam­ple, by Yota (in which you can buy dis­tri­b­u­tion for 2 or 24 hours) or MTS on the “Unlim­it­ed” tar­iff.

You will need:

1. A smart­phone with mobile inter­net.

Instruc­tion:

1. The instruc­tion is writ­ten for the Android oper­at­ing sys­tem. On oth­er oper­at­ing sys­tems, the algo­rithm of actions is sim­i­lar, only the names of the items may dif­fer.

2. Open “Set­tings” on your smart­phone;

3. Go to the “Access point and modem” item (it can be locat­ed both in the main menu and in the “Net­work and Inter­net” sec­tion, depend­ing on the firmware);

4. Select Wi-Fi Hotspot. Don’t turn it on just yet;

5. Select “Pro­tect”. Cre­ate a pass­word;

6. Go back and turn on the Wi-Fi hotspot;

7. On the tablet, open “Set­tings” — “Wi-Fi”;

8. Select the Wi-Fi dis­trib­uted by the smart­phone and enter the pass­word you cre­at­ed in step 4.

9. Every­thing. The tablet is con­nect­ed to the Inter­net. After all the nec­es­sary things, turn off the hotspot on the phone, as it leads to severe bat­tery drain.

Advan­tages of the method:

1. Allows you to access the Inter­net from any­where.

The dis­ad­van­tages of the method:

1. Mobile traf­fic is con­sumed on a smart­phone;

2. Quick dis­charge of the smart­phone.

Conclusion

The eas­i­est option to con­nect and set up the Inter­net on a tablet is to pur­chase a mod­el with a SIM card slot and a SIM card with a suit­able tar­iff.

The rest of the options (well, except for buy­ing a router or modem) are only suit­able for “emer­gency” cas­es.